The Cycliste Moderne, July 16, 2006

I have been too busy with work to really be as engaged in the Tour this year as in years past. I do not want OLN to think that I have not been tuning in because Armstrong is out, however, with the elimination of Basso, Ullrich, Vinokourov prior to the start of the Tour, and then the crashes that have claimed Valverde, Julich and others, and the poor performances of Hincapie and Leipheimer I am sure that the folks at OLN have been sweating the ratings as well.

It has been an exciting Tour, however. No single team has stamped its authority on the Tour, with the yellow jersey having been so far worn by Credit Agricole’s Hushovd of Norway, T-Mobile’s Gonchar of Ukraine, Quick.Step’ Boonen of Belgium, AG2R’s Dessel of France, Caisse d’Epargne’s Pereiro of Spain, and Discovery’s Hincapie and Phonak’s Landis of the United States all spending time in the jersey.

The stage wins have been passed around the teams and countries as well with German, Spanish, Australian, French and Ukrainian riders all winning stages to date. Credit Agricole, Davitamon-Lotto, T-Mobile, CSC, Agritubel, AG2R, Bouygues Telecom, Cofidis, Rabobank have all won stages to date. In fact the French have one three stages already and five out of six French teams have either won stages or have held the yellow jersey. Moreover, Quick.Step, Phonak, Gerolsteiner and Saunier Duval have yet to win a stage but all have riders who have not won stages but have lead one of the jersey competitions at some point in the race.

With the exception of Euskaltel-Euskadi, Francaise de Jeux, Milram and Liqugas, every team seems to have had their moments in the sun.

With the constant attrition that every team has suffered due to doping or injury, it is a wide open race as no one shows the ability to or desire to control the race as has been the case for most of the past fifteen editions of the race. Additionally, riders are having bad days and then good days which mean that it is always a different group who may be contending on any given day.

During OLN’s coverage the other night Phil Liggett opined that this may be the cleanest Tour in years as evidenced by its unpredictability and the apparent fatigue that has set in among the riders. Today’s stage evidence that fatigue as the leading breakaway of six riders hit a patch of gravel and slick asphalt outside of the finishing town of Gap putting half of the break over or into the roadside barricade and sending two riders to the hospital. Certainly the hot conditions contributed to the crash, much like Joseba Beloki’s crash a few years ago as the Tour raced into Gap. However, after watching the replay several times, it just seemed like people were not paying attention as neither the descent nor turn were that severe.

Does that mean that I think everyone in the past doped? No, but I think there is probably much less “preparation” going on than in past seasons. This year’s Tour will likely not be decided until the time trial on Saturday as I am not convinced that either Landis of Phonak of Evans of Davitamon-Lotto, have the team strength to go out and seize the Tour lead on Tuesday on L’Alpe D’Huez and then just defend through the Alps.